1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a maintenance station in an ink jet printing apparatus and, more particularly, to a maintenance station having acoustic dampening.
2. Description of the Related Art
A maintenance station for an ink jet printing apparatus generally performs maintenance operations to preserve the life of the ink jet printhead. The maintenance station includes a wiper for wiping residual ink from the nozzles of the ink jet printhead after completion of printing and a capping mechanism to cap the ink jet printhead for storage. The wiping and capping operations prevent the nozzles from becoming blocked and extend the life of the ink jet printhead.
One such maintenance station is configured to minimize the occupied space. The maintenance station includes a movable cap carriage, or maintenance sled, supporting a printhead cap. The cap is engageable with an ink jet printhead of the ink jet printing apparatus. A cover frame surrounds the maintenance sled and includes guide slots for receiving the corresponding guide pins of the maintenance sled, respectively. When the printing carriage engages a printing carriage engaging member of the maintenance station, the guide pins are caused to ride in the guide slots, enabling the movable maintenance sled to be shifted from a recessed position to an engaged position where the cap engages the ink jet printhead. Typically, a spring is disposed between the movable cap carriage and a cover frame to facilitate the return of the movable maintenance sled from the engaged position to the recessed position. However, when the movable maintenance sled returns from the engaged position to the recessed position, an unacceptable amount of noise is generated as the guide pins of the maintenance sled contact the rigid end-stops of the respective guide slots of the cover frame.
What is needed in the art is maintenance station which includes a mechanism to reduce the noise associated with the return of the maintenance sled to the recessed position.